2012-12-22
2012-12-30
x harry reid

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that will be passed in both houses. if an agreement is not reached in time between senator reid and senator mcconnell, then i will urge senator reid to bring to the floor and up or down vote for the floor, and i believe a p proposal could pass both houses with majorities as long as the leaders allow it to actually come to a vote. if members of the house or the senate want to vote no, they can. but we should let everybody vote. >> kristen, this up or down vote seems to be be the big news of the day, and isn't this what the white house wanted all along? >> well, it is. it is prp's way of saying, look, vote on his basic proposal, the proposal that will extend the middle-class tax cuts for those making $250,000 or more and extend unemployment benefits and spending cuts and basic plan that the president is calling for, and something similar has passed through senate so that the white house feels confident what the president is calling for would again pass through the senate and could potentially get through the house. in order for that to happen though, richard, that would involve every single democrat in

and mitch mcconnell were back at the capitol in no time. mcconnell gathered his members to inform them of the work that needs to be done. >> we had a good meeting down at the white house. we are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the white house, in the hopes that we can come forward, as early as sunday, and have a recommendation, that i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference, so we'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. so i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> i'm going to do everything that i can. i'm confident senator mcconnell will do the same. but everybody, this is -- whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect and some people aren't going to like it. some people will like it less, but that's where we are. and i feel confident that we have an obligation to do the best we can and that was made very clear in the white house. and we're going to do the best we can for the caucuses that we have and the country that's waiting for us to make a decision. >> but the president was in no playful

staffers with majority leader reid and minority leader mcconnell are trying to conjure up some last-minute deal and this plan would not be the grand bargain that john boehner started initially working on. that plan would have dealt with tax reform and deficit reduction and this will be a much more scaled back version that will deal with the issue of taxes and that is still the big sticking point, taxes. of course, democrats and president obama have called for tax rates to increase on those making $250,000 or less. republicans have said that's way too low. so they're thinking about potentially compromising on a rate that would be $400,000 or $500,000, but some republicans are saying they don't think that the tax rate should go up on anyone. so taxes still the major sticking point. right now the negotiations are going on the hill and there's a lot of optimism that came from the talks yesterday. of course, president obama hosted congressional leaders at the white house and they left that meeting and many said that it was constructive and they were optimistic that a deal could get done

there was earlier in the day. mitch mcconnell and harry reid say they're going to come out and try to hammer out a bipartisan deal that can pass the senate with enough republican votes to convince the house to act and even president obama who had been concerned that they were not going to act and challenging them for an up and down vote said he was optimistic. here's the president after that meeting. >> i just had a good and constructive discussion at the white house with senate and house leadership about how to prevent this tax hike on the middle class and i'm optimistic we may still be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time. >> now what would be in that mini deal? we're talking about tax increases for people at near the top of the income scale. the question is the threshold, 400 or $500,000 are the likely places that that could end up. it would likely turn off the automatic sequester by using some of the revenue from the tax increases to account as budget cuts and turn off they is quester and it would also extend unemployment benefits and do the so-called doc fix to preve

and leader mcconnell, senator feinstein, john mccain. our thanks and appreciation to mrs. bush and madame secretary for taking time to be here today and the contributions to this effort and your commitment to advancing the cause of freedom and democracy in burma. i would be remiss if i did not mention someone who's not with us today, congressman tom lantos. tom, and his wife and staff, worked so hard on behalf of burma for so many years. i wish he were here to share this moment in history with us because i think today is an amazing day. today is an incredible. who would have thought that when this bill was introduced in the house in 2008 when aung san suu kyi was under house arrest that in a few short years she would be standing or sitting with us on u.s. soil receiving this honor as a member of the burmese parliament. back then we thought about granting the metal and extension which may have been the first time a person would have received in the history of the metal the congressional gold medal while in detention. who would have imagined this change was possible. who would have thought

reid, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell would try to hammer out a deal amongst themselves, get it passed through the chamber and send it to the house. house speaker boehner made it clear he had not move first. he wants to see the senate act. the ball is now in the senate's court for all intents and purposes. >> sam, isn't it a bit late in the day to be playing this game of chick snn. >> i don't know what constitutes late in the day at this juncture. i guess we have a few more days, a couple more hours here. i think there's a general consensus we probably will hit the cliff, but that doesn't mean they can't hurry and get something done a day after, two days after, do it retroactively. the hit that would be felt by families would be minimum in that case. a lot of negotiations. we'll see what mcconnell and reid can pick up and forge together. >> nbc news has been reporting that the president's holding firm to this position of not cutting taxes for people earning more than $250,000 a year. you've been talking to republicans all day. will republicans vote for a plan that looks like

right to the senate floor where senator mitch mcconnell is actually speaking about the fiscal cliff. let's take a listen. >> we'll see what the president has to propose. members on both sides of the aisle will review it, and then we'll decide how best to proceed. hopefully, there's still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a wholly, wholly preventable economic crisis. mr. president, i yield the floor. >> the majority leader. >> i'm not sure my distinguished republican counterpart has followed what has taken place in the house of representatives. the house, as reported lie the press and we all know, one of the plans that didn't have a name, it wasn't plan "b," i don't know what plan it was because they've had a number over there, but this plan was to show the american people that the $250,000 ceiling on raising taxes wouldn't pass in the house. why didn't they have that vote? because it would have passed. they wanted to kill it. the speaker wanted to show everybody that it wouldn't pass the house. but he couldn't bring it up for vote because it would have pass

yet to bear fruit and right now we do have the focus on the senate. majority leader reid and mitch mcconnell trying to hammer out a deal that would, to some extent extend the bush-era tax cuts for those making $250,000 although we might see that number go up to 400,000, 500,000 if there is some type of a deal. the president has called on a deal to extend unemployment insurance benefits so that is another aspect that they're negotiating, but clearly, these negotiations are difficult. they have been from day one and that is why we are seeing them go to the 11th hour, but again, as of right now one democratic source expressing skepticism about getting something done by the all-important deadline. craig? >> the president, of course, appearing on "meet the press" tomorrow. is there a sense that the white house needs to stay out in front of this to convince americans that he's doing his part to reach a settlement before zero hour? >> think that is part of it and we've seen president obama take this tactic before. during the payroll tax cut fight, you'll remember he ran out and talked to people in

republican leader mitch mcconnell adding his voice to a day that has seen a number of people talking, including that man, harry reid, the majority leader of the senate. we've been getting mixed signals. the biggest signal we got was regarding the house which is coming back to -- reconvening sunday night, and that brought the market back in a big way, but now we're hearing from mitch mcconnell and let's bring in eamon javers there on capitol hill, i mean, the rumor had been, a lot of traders talking here, eamon, that maybe there's a dell brewing between the president and the senate. that doesn't sound like anything is going on right now according to rich mcconnell. >> what we got was a facebook post from scott brown who said he was come back to washington and jumping on an airplane to review some new proposal from the president that they expected to get. the whole afternoon has been spent by reporters trying -- trying to figure out what was going on. now harry vaed responding to mcconnell so let's right to it. >> he's upset because, quote, the phone never rang. he complains i've not d

'm optimistic. if an agreement isn't reached in time, between senate store reid and senator mcconnell, then i will urge senator reid to bring to the floor a basic package for an up or down vote. i believe such a proposal could pass with bipartisan majorities. >> this up or down vote seems to be the big news of the day. isn't this what the white house wanted all along? >> well, it is. it's president's obama's way of saying vote on his basic proposal. it would extend in employment insurance benefit and deal with unemployment insurance cuts. >> so the question is, could they actually get that many republicans to vote for this package that the president is calling for? >> but politically, what he is doing is essentially saying this is the plan that i'm putting forth. let's get it through the senate and if it fails, it will fail in the republican-led house. essentially having rely cans having owned that failure. >> i didn't hear also about the debt ceiling that the treasury secretary was just saying we need to raise pretty much any day now. is this going to be the next couple of months in terms of

to senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. >> we had a good meeting down at the white house. engaged in discussions in the hopes we can come forward as early as sunday and have a recommendation that i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference. >> and the senate is set to reconvene sunday at 1:00 eastern time. the house also expected to be in session on sunday. they'll start at 2:00 eastern time with the first votes coming at 6:30. let's head up to capitol hill. mike viqueira is there. so what? even if they reach a deal today or tomorrow? do we have time to get this dup? >> i think so, t.j. if they sign off from everybody in the senate. if everybody stands up, no & nobody objects. they call it unanimous consent around here. they can wave their hansory anything. badda bing, badda boom. it's out of here. you look at senate leaders on the floor, and you ask what the heck took so long? the first senate session since 1995 to fall during the holiday week. known all along the fiscal cliff is looming, yet the deadline spurs action. not a done deal. still a c

mitch mcconnell trying to put together some alternative package that could in fact make its way through both houses. after they met with the president on friday, they sounded cautiously optimistic. here's what they had to say. take a listen. >> we'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. and so i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> i'm going to do everything that i can. i'm confident senator mcconnell will do the same. but everybody, this is whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. >> and t.j., there's a lot of pressure on lawmakers and on the president to get something done. we've already seen the markets impacted by this. a lot of americans have just expressed frustration and concern over what's going to happen to their tax rates in the new year if in fact lawmakers can't get a deal. so there's a lot of public pressure to get something done on this. and of course, time is really running out. t.j.? >> kristen welker for us at the white house. thank you so much. and joining me now with some inside perspective, there he is smiling this morning, democr

majority leader harry reid quickly moved the measure to a vote. minority leader mch mcconnell assured that no republicans block the bill. house speaker john boehner agreed to bring the bill to a vote on the house floor. and leader nancy pelosi with the number of votes needed to pass. >> what folks are looking for and all of us agree on this is action. they want to see that we are focused on them, not focused on our politics here in washington. >> reporter: that was the last time this group met more than a month ago. with time running out to forge a scaled-down compromise, can they agree on even the most basic elements, extending some income tax cuts, preventing pay cuts to medicare providers, fixing the alternative minimum tax. among the options to gain votes, averting an estate tax hike toll woo republicans. there's still time but no room for error. if congress doesn't act -- >> the impact psychologically and financially on americans of another plunge in the negative territory for the economy would be extremely harmful. >> reporter: and candy, as i said, those leaders are still meeti

congressional leaders. reid, mcconnell, boehner and pelosi. . joining me to talk more, we have peter alexander standing by at the white house as well as nbc's mike viqueira on capitol hill. some verbal smackdown, basically flipping the lights back on and harry reid taking to the floor to eviscerate speaker boehner. >> the sad part is you often seen the floor opened that way. mitch mcconnell being later today. i'm sure we'll hear something later. to hear it two days after christmas and a matter of days before we go through the fiscal cliff, obviously not encouraging. harry reid says time is running hout. he doesn't know if they could go through the legislative hurdles. if they have the votes around here, they can legislate the sky is green and the grass is blue. that's not an issue. what harry reid is really saying is mitch mcconnell, get on board, don't try to filibuster. of course they're talking about a bill that had raise capital on couples making more than $250,000 a year, and do a few other nuts and bolts that are deemed the bare minimum that the president wants to see done before we hit

by the list on the fiscal cliff negotiations from capitol hill. first, harry reid and mitch mcconnell and then remarks from president obama at the white house. also, yesterday, senators carl levin john mccain of for their ideas for bypassing the bill buster to -- it would change the senate rules to assemble a majority vote. they spoke for about half an hour. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ok, sorry for the delay. we thought we had a vote, but there was no vote. senator mccain and i are part of a group of eight senators who have been working for about a month to come up with a proposal for our leaders and our conferences, which will hopefully overcome the gridlock that has so permeated the u.s. senate. the eight senators who have participated in this effort are myself, senator mccain, senator schumer, senator alexander, senator cardin, senator kyl, senator prior, and senator barasso. it is a bipartisan proposal, and we believe strongly we must reform the senate's procedures if it is going to do business m

reid is trying to jam mitch mcconnell into allowing this vote to go forward without the 60-vote threshold, something that's necessary for virtually every vote here in the senate and mitch mcconnell says it's time for president obama to lead. the threshold question is, can something pass the house of representatives? can john boehner put something on the floor that needs the majority of democrat support that will not get republican support and none to speak of that would allow taxes to go up for people making more than $250,000 or 400,000 as was in the president's last offer and the answer to that question remains very, very unlikely. so we are where we are. this ain't schoolhouse rock, that's for sure. it's not like the house passes a bill, the senate passes a bill. this is a stand yau and the looks like the ultimate version of white house gridlock. >> right. and you mentioned the threshold. we have senator murkily on later today to talk about how crucial the filibuster is. i want to go right to steve kornaki here. we talk about the weather sometimes because it's more fun than p

with the president, the democratic leader in the senate, harry reid, and the republican leader mitch mcconnell have come together and they have saved the day. they did it again and again. it happened in 2010, when mitch mcconnell actually worked with joe biden to extend the bush tax cuts and they got a bunch of stimulus passed. it happened in 2011 when reid and mcconnell were key in resolving the debt ceiling fight. and people thought it could happen again this time. what's different now is mitch mcconnell is up for re-election. and it is weird to say this aloud, what i'm about to tell you. i have never even thought about how weird it is to say until tonight's broadcast. but the person mitch mcconnell has in his head right now, the person he's maybe a bit afraid of, is ashley judd. yeah. that ashley judd. >> don't cry. don't cry. you're going to be fine. >> okay. >> mitch mcconnell's up for re-election potentially against ashley judd. she might be running against him. and she's polling well. they're only about four points apart. so he doesn't want any trouble. he certainly does not want a conservat

probably say where our senate majority leader harry reid and senator mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, because now all eyes turn to the senate. they're set to come back to town on the 27th. that is thursday. and at this point there are a number of options for some sort of bill that senate majority leader harry reid could put on the floor, but right now it appears democrats in the white house are pushing for something that still concentrates on making sure that income tax rates for those making a quarter million dollars or less don't go up. that said, it's really hard to see how at that rate senator mcconnell might allow some republican senators to support it or that some republican senators would even want to jump on board with that and even harder to see how a bill like that is something that house speaker john boehner would allow to the floor -- allow to the house floor for a vote. so things are very uncertainty point and you're hearing a lot of pessimism as we just heard from democrats and republicans about what will happen with the fiscal cliff and whether we'll go o

on his side. that's why speaker boehner and mitch mcconnell are cracking up with the clock ticking. joining me now is form er pennsylvania governor ed rendell. jerry bernstein, senior fellow at the center and jonathan, opinion writer for "the washington post" and an msnbc kriblt tor. contributor. thank you all for coming on the show. governor rendell, let me start with you. have you ever, ever seen anything like this? i mean, where is the leadership? >> yeah, this is amazing. if i were the president, i'd be tremendously frustrated. you have to have somebody to negotiate with. there's nobody across the table for the president to strike a deal with. and the president has been forthcoming. he's been expansive. he's already moved. he's moved from 250 to 400. he's made significant steps. he's laid out some of the entitlement forms that he's willing to accept. he's moved about as far as he can move because there's nobody coming back to limb saying we'll do this and we'll do that. it's really irresponsible. >> it's very irresponsible. jonathan, you look at the fact that they're not being

conference, it came after president obama met with john boehner and nancy pelosi and harry reid and mitch mcconnell, so all the key congressional leaders. and listen to the president here. >> the american people are watching what we do here. obviously, their patience is already thin. this is deja vu all over again. america wonders why it is that in this town for some reason, you can't get stuff done in an organized timetable. why everything always has to wait until the last minute. well, we're now at the last minute. and the american people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. not right now. i just have to repeat. you know, outside of washington, nobody understands how it is that this seems to be a repeat pattern, over and over again. ordinary folks, they do their jobs. they meet deadlines. they sit down and they discuss things and things happen. if there are disagreements, they sort through the disagreements. the notion that our elected leadership can't do the same thing is mind boggling to them. and needs to stop. >> i just have to repeat, cong

on a bipartisan deal ostensibly with his republican adversary mitch mcconnell. >> -- engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the white house, in the hopes that we can come forward as early as sunday and have a recommendation that i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference. >> well, if the senate manages to reach a compromise, the hope is that the house would follow. that's option one. the green one. option two is less certain. president obama reportedly challenged congressional leaders from both parties on friday to come up with a deal better than the one he proposed. the center piece of which is that the top marginal tax rate will increase for those earning $250,000 or more from 35% to 39.6%. that's only on the amount earned above that threshold. obama has told congress either they come up with something better or put his proposal to a vote. he's betting even those who hate the idea of a tax increase on the rich will hate causing america to go over the fiscal cliff even more. okay. option three. that's the red box. that's one where ame

departure, the president called all four congressional leaders, reid, mcconnell, boehner and pelosi. now fiery words after reid hit boehner with volley after volley from the senate floor earlier today. >> if we go over the cliff and it looks like that's where we're headed, mr. president, the house of representatives as we speak with four days after today aren't here with the speaker having told them they'll have 48-hours notice. i can't imagine their conscie e consciences. >> speaker boehner's office responding with a terse statement saying in part, quote, senator reid should talk less and legislate more. the house already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. senate democrats have not. joining me now from d.c. nbc news white house correspondent peter alexander. peter, there was word the last hour that the president may have sent some sort of deal. the white house then turning around saying that's not true at all. where was the confusion? >> reporter: well, you hear the frosty statements back and forth as you just indicated there, craig. ah, the holidays in washington. a

. >> thank you so much. we just got word that the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell will be going before cameras shortly so that could be market-moving as well. we'll wait to see what that is. >> when he speaks, we'll bring him to you. flows into stocks-based mutual and exchange traded funds have posted 8 billion and bonds, on the other hand, have taken less than 1 billion. a bit of a rotation going on here. should investors be putting money to work in equities despite today's selloff? >> the battle of stocks versus bond. with us cnbc's jeff cox and kathy jones from charles schwab. waiting to see what the ten-year note is doing. it's come back sharply now with the buying of stocks here. i mean, there is this either/or going on right now, safety vers versus risks, right? >> doing this all year long, news about the economy or settlement of the fiscal cliff issue, the bond market sells off a little bit and the market rallies. here we are again. hope springs eternal. >> let's say we get a deal in the near term, some sort of a framework deal. does that mean we'll see rates on the treas

. >> shortly after mcconnell made those statements, he said whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. some people aren't going to like it. some people will like it less. but that is where we are. run through timeline of events tonight. senate will be taking up the supplemental, controversial in and of itself. republicans don't like it because they want offsetting cuts. saturday the senate will take the day off to formulate some sort of deal. back in association on sunday is the house at house at 2:00 p.m. to consider the deal and avoid fiscal cliff. bring in panel. fred barnes, executive editor of stand stand. kirsten powers and sindcated columnist krauthammer. >> what do you make of this? >> moldestly optimistic. they work out a deal before. they did when the talks over the debt limit fell apart. they can do it again. they can raise the income level for having the taxes raised. president offered $400,000 rather than $250,000. $400,000. people over that pay more last week. got it to $500,000, i personally talked to members of congress conservative republicans who would go along with

removed himself from these discussions. harry reid, president obama, and a little bit of mitch mcconnell. what is possible of making a deal? >> the ball seems to be in mitch mcconnell's court. does he filibuster anything that harry reid ends up making with president obama? we have a paired down legislation extending for income below $250,000 and doing something with unemployment insurance that you were talking about? the question is a senate filibuster, democrats need 60 votes and republican votes, mcconnell ends up filibustering and will there be senators who support the legislation and blocking the filibuster. a lot of gymsmanship and republicans when you lock at the situation in the house and the inability to pass along the other things, they are on the verge of taking a lot of blame if they filibuster the legislation and the house doesn't act on it. >> and only democratic support developing here. how much is he going to agree with the president when he has the election in 2014? some folks don't want to appear in any way too close to president obama right now. >> let's move on in term

that kind of signal? i do not think so. that is what a lot of us watch mitch mcconnell very closely. there are people in his caucus who early to vote for what i just said. can they get it on the floor and overcome the procedural hurdles? host: if nothing happens, what are we looking at? guest: january 3 at noon. there are so many scenarios. if the new congress convenes on the third, negotiations continue. democrats would have more strength. they have gained 7 or eight seats. i think the key if they go over the cliff will be the financial markets. if the market go into a panic and if the dow tumbles into free-fall wednesday, thursday, friday, i think we'll see something quickly. host: david lightman, thank you for checking in. we will check in with things stand with the fiscal cliff. you can join us honor twitter account at twitter.com/cspanwj. it is down to the wire. robert on the democrats line. caller: i blame the republicans . i do not think they are being honest. they think the american people are stupid. the american people are not stupid. the american people are not going to f

reid to cobble together the deal. minority leader mitch mcconnell to ensure no republicans block the bill. for house speaker john boehner to agree to bring it to a vote on the house floor, and leader nancy pelosi to produce the huge number of democrats needed to pass it. but if that plan falls through -- >> then i will urge senator reid to bring to the floor a basic package for an up or down vote. >> the president's basic package has much more for democrats to like. so don't expect that to get very far. but all sides now agree the senate must first pass a bill before the house makes any kind of move. so all eyes will be on mitch mcconnell and harry reid and their negotiators holed up on capitol hill. the senate comes back into session at 1:00 on sunday. >> jessica yellin, thanks. >>> and with the pressure now squarely on the senate to fix the fiscal cliff, they will lead the talks this weekend. a period of time reid calls, quote, very important, mcconnell says he's hopeful both sides will have a plan to present to their respective members as early as tomorrow. and other republica

may still be able to reach an agreement that can pass both houses in time. senators reid and mcconnell are working on such an agreement as we speak. >> sean: here is what you need to remember. number one, the whole fed iasco was totally and completely avoidable. number two, senate democrats have not fulfilled their constitutional duty to pass a budget in over three long years. over 13 hyundais. their obsession has been and continues to be ruthless politics over doing what is right for you, the american people. now, number three, not once in the time has president obama demanded that the senate do their job. this is the height of irresponsibility. number four, the president's main focus has been to attack republicans again and again yet republicans they have done their job. they passed a bill months ago to avoid this fiscal cliff. now, that bill has been come meetly ignored by -- completely ignored by senate democrats and by the president. number five the worse part of all there is nothing here that the president is proprosing that deals with the real clear present danger that america n

mitch mcconnell said he wasn't willing to offer the white house a blank check just because we're on the edge of the cliff. take a look. >> last night i told the president we'd be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. and republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. >> well, actually it's not a blank check the president has been pushing. and this isn't a partisan statement. look at the numbers in terms of what the public thinks about what the president ran on, which is to raise taxes for people who make over $250,000 a year. 47% of the country basically agrees with that, which is what he said. only 13% raise taxes for everybody. they are the real conservatives and fiscally hawkish i would say. and 35% say no tax increase. so americans tend to agree with the president. when you go back to this campaign, there are very few other statements he made a

leader mitch mcconnel are working on a deal. he meet with them along with house speaker john boehner and house democratic leader nancy pelosi.at the white house for about an hour today. he said the meeting was good and constructive. but expressed his frustration for the american people with waiting until stories... >> america wonders why you cannot get things done in this town in an organized timetable. why does everything have to wait until the last minute? now, we are at the last minute. the american people are not going to have many patients for a self-inflicted wound to our economy. >> reporter: coming up at 5:30 we'll have more from the president. and our political analyst michael yaki will give us his take on today's developments. >> catherine: there's rain on the way this holiday weekend. this is a live look from our camera on mount tam. and a look at downtown san francisco. i'm here in the weather center with jacqueline bennet -- where is the wet weather? >> jacqueline: we are still getting some return on the radar but it is still too dry for the rain to hit the ground. it wi

obama, john boehner, nancy pelosi and harry reid, many mitch -- mitch mcconnell all in one room. danielle nottingham tells us it maybe the last chance to get any kind of agreement to avoid that fiscal cliff. >> reporter: president obama is meeting today at the white house with top congressional democrats harry reid and nancy pelosi and leading republicans mitch mcconnell and john boehner. it's the president's first meeting with congressional leaders since november 16th. the closed door discussions are an attempt to reach a last minute agreement to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases due to kick in january 1st. >> probably the worst case scenario will come out of this meeting today and that is we will kick the can down the road. >> reporter: senator bob courter told cbs this morning he predicts the meeting will bring only a temporary solution. >> this afternoon's meeting feels much to me like optics to make it look like we're doing something. let me just say one more time this is a total dereliction of duty at every level. >> reporter: going over the cliff would af

of the gop and the senate. mitch mcconnell seems to be getting a little nervous about the rumblings around ashley judd's political intentions. >>> in 1823 one of the most famous versus of the holiday season was introduced. >>> nine days until we reach the edge of the fiscal cliff. what is going to be done about that? we will ask california congress woman coming up. hi, i'm phil mickelson. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain

a bill unless mitch mcconnell allows it to come for a vote for a simple majority. they are seeking assurances that he won't try to block it. for his part he said it's up to the president to lead. unclear if anything is going to happen today. it's becoming more and more likely we will hit january 1st without a resolution. >> peter, obviously the president gets back a little bit from now. what are we hearing about their strategy? we have that very effective bully pulpit? >> it's a good question. the president is supposed to arrive a couple hours from now. 72 degrees for honolulu. better hope he brings sunshine back with him. the real challenge is when he gets here, there is barely 100 hours before the headline hits. he said a short time ago describing their strategy and it remains not too dissimilar. it's not whether we can get a deal done or not. whether mcconnell will filibuster such a deal and will boehner allow a vote. the strategy he indicated moments ago. that doesn't look like good news with the frosty exchange of statements between house speaker boehner yesterday and majority

. that failed. the focus shifts to the senate. reid and mcconnell will really be charged with trying to hammer out the fine details of that deal that can make it through the senate and through the house so that is the challenge moving forward. of course, president obama here in hawaii for his christmas cray case. he played some golf over the weekend. also, attended the memorial service for the late senator daniel inouye. thomas, on a much lighter note, he asked me had i taken my flip flops out last hour. i hadn't but i did since my work is wrapping up for you guys, flip flops are out and i'm ready to join those folks on the beach behind me. >> i'm very proud of you. i don't want to jinx this by talking about when you might have to pack but is there potential that the president may wrap up the vacation a little bit earlier than expected because of, say, harry reid and mitch mcconnell are able to work something out? >> reporter: i think that that is very likely. you heard president obama sort of signal that he's going to do that when he spoke on friday. he talked about the fact he'll be seeing e

mitch mcconnell, house speaker john boehner and house democratic leader nancy pelosi met at the white house yesterday afternoon with the president and vice president. here's where things stand right now. the senate leaders are meeting aiming to avoid tax hikes. and they may vote on a deal sunday or perhaps on monday. jessica yellin is our chief white house correspondent. lisa day jar dayne is on capitol hill. the president used his bully pulpit to reinforce the idea that senators need to get busy. so let's listen. >> the american people are watching what we do here. obviously, their patience is already thin. this is deja vu all over again. america wonders why it is that in this town for some reason, you can't get stuff done in an organized timetable, why everything always has to wait till the last minute. we're now at the last minute. and the american people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. not right now. >> so jessica, you were in the room for the president's remarks. on a scale of 1 to 10, let's measure the anger perhaps that

with the speaker and mix mcconnel and harry reid to see if they can avoid going off the fiscal curb on january 1st. today harry reid emphasized that there is ome one reason why they are unable to reach an agreement so far. >> this has been going on for years. they cannot cross over the threshold. people are not propose iing mak the taxes like them. john boehner could not even pass the tax proposal he passed over there. he said no, can't do that. didn't he bring it up for a vote? >> tonight, speaker boehner's office put out this statement. >> joining me now are our guests. clearly the positioning game continues. harry reid saying we did our job months ago. do you think we til would be@posturing stage at the end of that white house meeting tomorrow? >> in your introduction you made the fundamental point here which is that this agreement before the end of the year, simply cannot go forward unless john by nor is willing to let it do so with majority democrats in the house. if we go over the curve as you put it, they can vote for a large tax decrease becaused off of the new rates that would be reset. t

for very long, it seems. he left in the last hour. also, we were able to see some of senator mcconnell's staffers. i was able to speak to one of them coming in and out of these kind of closed-door planning meetings. he said they've been here since 9:00 a.m. they plan to work all day and we may see his boss, senator mcconnell, later today. that shows us kind of where things stand. i wanted to break this down simply because there's so much that complicates the story. let's look really quickly at a graphic of the basics, what's happening right now. here's where we stand with the fiscal cliff. first of all, who's doing the negotiating? ice the top two senators, senator reid for the democrats, senator mcconnell for the republican, and it is their staff who are working out details right now. what are they talking about? mainly trying to find a way to avoid those tax hikes for most americans. that could also include an extension of unemployment benefits. what is unclear is whether other things such as budget cuts eliminating that sequester that's coming up or other things will be in that deal

as senator reid and his opposite number, minority leader mitch mcconnell. but today, mcconnell gave no indication of movement. >> last night i told the president we'd be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as i said this is a conversation we should have had months ago. and republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. >> reporter: adding to the urgency, treasury secretary timothy geithner warned he'll have to begin taking "extraordinary measures" to postpone a government default. the government is on track to hit its borrowing limit on monday, he said with no prospect of congressional action to raise the limit. here now to help us unravel what's going on is todd zwillich. he's washington correspondent for "the takeaway" on public radio international. todd, welcome back. decode this for us. are the players privately as bleak about the prospects as their public statement suggests? >> not as bleak, margaret, but bleak

the focus shifts to the senate. senate majority leader harry reid, minority leader mitch mcconnell will have to try to hammer out some sort of a compromise to avoid going over the cliff, but as you pointed out in your introduction, a lot of senators over the weekend expressed concern that, in fact, we will go over the fiscal cliff. of course, if is that happens, the economy could eventually slip back into recession. one interesting point, thomas, though, last time that members of congress worked between christmas and new year's was 1996. that was during the government shutdown. this is really a rare occurrence for members of congress to have to come back and work out legislation that they went able to get done before the christmas holiday. >> the president is supposed to stay there for how long? >> well, of course, the white house not really giving us specifics about the president's travel plans at this point in time. the reality is i think the president is himself trying to figure out what he is going to do, but we do expect that he will cut his vacation short. you've heard the president hi

, was senator mitch mcconnell and here we have the majority leader in the senate, harry reid. let's listen in for a second. >> the house has reported by the press and we all know, one of the plans didn't have a name, it wasn't plan b. i don't know which plan it was because they've had a number over there. but this plan was to show the american people that the $250,000 ceiling on raising taxes wouldn't pass in the house. why didn't they have that vote? because it would have passed. they wanted to kill it. the speaker wanted to show everybody that it wouldn't pass the house. but he couldn't bring it up for vote because it wouldn't pass. republicans -- a myriad of republicans think it's the fair thing to do and of course every democrat would vote for that. the republican leader finds himself frustrated that the president has called on him to help address the fiscal cliff. he's upset because, quote, the phone never rang. he complains that i have not passed the resolution to pass the fiscal cliff but he's in error. we all know that in july of this year we passed in the senate the relief that wo

few months, it has largely banned mitch mcconnell and harry reid who have trumped up something toward the end to avert shutdowns and the like. they together have averted a tax hike last december. it is an interesting fact that the senate, even though it is normally seen as the body that cannot get anything done, it has more bipartisanship right now, and there is more of an incentive for the senators to try to get something done. house members are more polarized. they are worried more about primaries than general elections. the best case scenario here is that the senate does craft a compromise that both parties can live with, and it is take it or leave it to the house right up until the deadline, and you figure enough democrats and republicans come together to send it across to the white house. >> stephen dennis, thank you so much for your time. >> absolutely. >> here are president obama's remarks from the white house earlier today. afterwards, we will hear from senators reid and mcconnell from the senate floor. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning perfo

mcconnell, who will join his colleagues later today at the white house. [video clip] >> i told the president last night we would be happy to look at whatever he proposes. the truth is we are coming up against a hard deadline. as i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. republicans are not about to write a blank check or anything senate democrats before or just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. that would not be fair to the american people. that said, we will see what the president has to propose. members on both sides will review it. then we will decide how best to proceed. hopefully, there's still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a preventable economic crisis. host: damian paletta. guest: senator mcconnell is a pro at this kind of negotiation. he's going into this white house meeting saying, give us your proposal, let us see what you want to do, we will be willing to look at whatever you present. the potential problem is what the white house will present is something they are presented before that senator mcconnell has s

cliff deal. and is it mitch mcconnell to the rescue. live in washington on the 11th hour negotiations. >> and did you know about to fall off the dairy cliff? >> juliet: have you seen the prices? >> dave: as high as 8 bucks a gallon for milk. >> clayton: oak ridge boys bush. special number tribute for number 41. "fox & friends" begins right now. >> am i wrong about that don't the have a deep voice? ♪ >> oak ridge boys have been on this show many times on "fox & friends." >> good morning, everyone. >> dave: good morning. juliet huddy celebrating an early new year's eve. is it new year's eve? >> juliet: sparkly shoes and everything. i feel like we are waking up at 4:00 in the morning on saturday i better be festive. >> clayton: that's what woke me up this morning. >> juliet: this is a beautiful set it has inspired me. >> dave: it's spectacular. >> juliet: it is. >> dave: it's fiscal cliff time. couple of days away. rare i wake up and say i'm moderately optimistic but that's what the president said. you are either optimistic or you are not. the president said he is modestly optimistic a

senator mcconnell decides whether to filibuster the measure and whether the other republicans in the party will filibuster, they have to see the details in the proposal. will there be an estate tax provision? how will unemployment which is expected to be extended? will it be paid for? what spending measures will be in this and spending cuts, etc. there will be more details spelled out and where will that come from? will it come from a phone call and staff here at the white house and spelled out by the staff of the senate majority leader harry reid. all that was is yet to be determined. perhaps senator connell's office believes it will come from different sources and there is a lot of potential for confusion with such little time left and so much pressure on the line. dana might have more information. >> a lot of -- if this happens that happens. you are right. hey, dana,y want to go to you. across the wire the house may be coming back into session on sunday, but do we know, is there movement towards getting there? is that confirmed? >> yes, we have it confirmed. i apologize. there is a conf

. it is up to the senate to do something. you have senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, the republican saying it is up to the democrats to do something. we'll not do anything until president obama and the democrats come up with a plan and president obama actually late yesterday did call all four leaders, majority, minority leaders in the house and senate that includes mitch mcconnell and said the first time a democrat called him since thanksgiving to talk about this. so they're talking but there is no indication anybody is actually doing anything right now. gregg: what about harry reid? what's his, does he have anything at all maybe towards the end of the week he will put on the table? i've been hearing he will put to a vote an extension of the bush tax cuts for anybody making under $250,000 a year, extend unemployment benefits for some 2 million people that are about to lose them. what are you hearing? >> right. he sounded pretty pessimistic this morning but that could change and there's, kind of a fight, procedurally between the house and the senate in a sense that if reid originates

be a protest vote and make him go to a second ballot. also mitch mcconnell doesn't want his fingerprints on this because he doesn't want to be primaried. so you have these sort of -- shall we say, the lack of courage or ziesh to move on this from mcconnell and boehner, it's directly tied to prospects to serve in current jobs. it's a fascinating subplot. >> i want to pick up on that on something jared was starting to say. some degree we're playing a bit of a game of semantics here. because there's some calculation that the republicans say we go over the cliff and then technically we can be seen as not voting to increase taxes, but we can be seen as voting for cutting taxes once the sort of -- we go over the cliff and we're on the other side of it. am i right about that? >> yeah. it's a very cynical ploy. the idea of the tax automatically reset for everybody. they can say i didn't vote for that. they all go up. and then they can vote to lower taxes for the $250,000 and below households. that's 98% of households. that's a -- that's something like a -- you know, a multi -- that's something l

leader mitch mcconnell talking about doing something to keep more than trillion dollars in tax increases and cuts from taking effect next week. also joining that party today, america's happy warrior. vice president joe biden will be there. while some appear ready to compromise others are still ducking, dodging, trying to dump the blame elsewhere. >> we all have our ideas and in the senate, you're right. we probably another 40, 50, 60 of saying that we're ready to both raise revenues and control entitlements. when's the missing ingredient? it is presidential leadership. >> i think in the end we'll get a deal. the question is the timing. >> am hopeful there will be a deal that avoids the worst parts of the fiscal cliff, namely taxes going up on middle class people. >> it's pretty apparent that we are not going to do what we've been called to do. this is 112th congress. we have had two years to deal with quote the fiscal cliff. >> let's bring in our man at the white house, peter alexander standing by. pete, we just got word the president it appears is making some sort of smaller offer at th

reid and mcconnell, they just met, but now they're saying, it wasn't about the fiscal cliff. what else is there to talk about? >> reporter: no. i think we know exactly what their new year's eve plans will be, we're going to be right here. senator reid himself said that they did not discuss that. and it seems to be that that is an indication, at least to republicans here on capitol hill, that it is the president's move next to make more clear what jessica is talking about. that the president has said publicly, he wants to do as kind of that stopgap, scaled down version. in fact, mitch mcconnell himself said in the hallway, just moments ago, that he does expect to go to the white house, as jessica just alluded to. he expects to do that tomorrow. they haven't gotten a formal invitation tomorrow. there's no time set for this meeting tomorrow, but mitch mcconnell says he does expect to go. and so that really does speak to the next move, tomorrow. >> well, that is good news. that is good news, senator mcconnell going to the white house tomorrow, hopefully. but i'm going to ask you about the

pelosi, mrs. bush, leader reed, leader mcconnell, secretary of state hillary clinton and my colleagues in government, this is a special day to honor a special person in a special place. for many years, i have followed the tragedies and victories of this uncommonly courageous and persistent woman. in 1988, she quickly rose to be the voice of democracy in burma, creating the national league for democracy. elections followed in 1990, where her party won 80% of the seats. that joy quickly turned to tragedy. the military junta nullified the election and arrested aung san suu kyi. she would spend the better part of two decades under house arrest, unable even to visit her dying husband. in 1996, i recall being approached to sponsor a burma sanctions bill. sanctions were put in place in 1997 andsanctions were only loosened in july of this year. senator mcconnell later became one of aung san suu kyi's chief advocates in the senate and we continued to work on behalf of the people in burma. in 2003, following an assassination attempt, senator mcconnell and i worked to pass an important and that r

the senate's democratic majority leader harry reid and republican minority leader mitch mcconnell offered their takes on the meeting. >> we had a good meeting down at the white house. we are engaged in discussions, the majority leader, myself and the white house, in the hopes that we can come forward as early as sunday and have a recommendation that i can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference. and so we'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. and so i'm hopeful and optimistic. >> whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. some people aren't going to like it. some people will like it less. but that's where we are. and i feel confident that we have an obligation to do the best we can and that was made very clear. >> brown: house speaker john boehner aides said if the senate passes a bill the house will take it up and either accept or amend it and a short time ago president obama appeared in the white house briefing room with a statement. here is some of what he said. >> we had a constructive meeting today. senator

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